The present invention relates to devices for controlling the spacing between adjacent panels while fastening the panels together, and more specifically to the application of such devices to the assembly of trim components of automotive vehicles.
In the assembly of automotive vehicles, it is desirable to facilitate the assembly of soft interior trim panels to the interior of the structural body panels of the vehicle in a manner that allows for the speedy fastening of the interior trim panel with respect to the structural body panel in a spaced relationship. In joining the interior trim panels to portions of the vehicle body, it is customary to use non-threaded fastening devices, referred to as push-pins. In using such fasteners, it is the normal practice to position some mating fastener or aperture on the opposite side of the structural body panel from that to which the trim panel is to be attached and to insert the push-pin into that fastener or aperture. Maintaining a spacing between the interior trim panel and the structural body panel has customarily been accomplished through the use of separate spacing components. The handling of these separate components and the care needed to align the push-pin with respect to its mating fastener tends to slow the assembly process. It is accordingly desirable that a retainer that will mate with the push-pin and concurrently control the spacing between the interior trim panel and the structural body panel would be desirable.
Standoff devices for use with threaded fasteners are known in the prior art. U.S. Pat. No. 4,760,495 to Till is exemplary of such devices. While such devices could supply the desired panel spacing function, they suffer from certain disadvantages. They are relatively massive in that the standoff device itself is utilized to transfer tensile load joining the adjacent panels together. Further, the nature of the configuration for receiving the threaded fastener inherently requires precision alignment of one fastener with respect to the other and, of course, requires the use of rotary tooling for assembly.